Where the White Things Are: Three Spoonfuls of Sugar

The week of Halloween is also known as SUGAR OVERLOAD week, wherein I must exert myself to stop projecting my own digestive needs onto my children. They eat so much more sugar than I could ever stomach, and I get an odd sort of referred pain as a result.

Low maintenance Halloween costumes: a strawberry, a teacher, a tree, a teenager, and a witch. Confession: I recently purchased my first selfie stick. It converts into a tripod AND has a removable Bluetooth remote camera trigger, so it is pretty much going to take my family photography to the next level. I actually prefer to use it as a tripod rather than holding the awkward selfie stick out like I did for this picture.

First dose of sugar: On Saturday morning (October 29th), we went to Grandview for Grampa Dan's Saturday morning pancakes for the first time in over two months. Sugar source: pancakes and syrup. Dan makes his pancakes with a whole cup of sugar, and then the kids dump lakes of syrup on top. I do not partake of this. My sensitive stomach would rebel. Jeff dropped me off five miles away on the bike path, and I ran the rest of the way to meet him at his parents' house. I had a lovely run, listening to happy peppy music to make the dull bike path more interesting. By the time I arrived at Chez White Senior, the pancake portion of the morning was over. The kids were reunited joyfully with their cousins and played for extra time while the adults chatted.

Dose of sugar #2: Later that day, I took Rose and Amber with me to Walmart. I did not want to go to Walmart at all, especially not on a Saturday. But the cross country season bubble made me forget that Halloween, ward trunk or treat, and Amber's birthday were right around the corner. We needed to get candy for the ward trunk or treat pronto! The girls begged to come with me, so I brought them and braced myself for the triple threat of Walmart on a Saturday, right before Halloween, with two kids in tow. It was everything I expected and more. Who needs a haunted house when you have a small town Walmart on the Saturday before Halloween? It was horrible.

The shopping carts were all taken, and we had to hike back through the parking lot to find a cart. The few relevant shelves that were not completely empty were a jumbled mess of junk. We picked through the chaotic rubble and managed to find a birthday pinata and supplies along with a 4 pound bag of Jolly Rancher candy and some gummy bears. We also had to find a treat for Amber to bring to her school class on her birthday, and since we were there we also got some milk, butter, and a few other grocery items. And (why oh why?) since it's donut month, we also got some donuts. The place was a madhouse and Amber was a ping pong ball and Rose was always at my elbow and I was completely frazzled by the time we finally got out of there with nearly $100 worth of sugary items.

I rested with an Asian drama on Netflix between Walmart and the trunk or treat.

All too soon it was time to don a costume. I went ultra simple this year and dressed as a reluctant last-minute strawberry in my red XC coach's jacket and a green hat. I stuck masking tape on my red jacket and drew strawberry seeds onto the tape. Jeff thought I was dressed as a blood donor at first, and honestly my jacket made me look more like I was a gunshot victim than a strawberry, but oh well. All of the above were Halloween-appropriate, haha. Jeff dressed up as a student and Jay dressed up as a teacher. Jeff wore a black hoodie, white earbuds, saggy jeans, and white sneakers. Jay wore a SHS teacher t-shirt tucked into jeans with a belt and a Sunnyside School District satchel. Both Jeff and Jay were uncanny in their portrayal of their roles--not just their costumes.

Rose dressed up as an autumn tree, with brown clothes and red tissue paper stuck all over her torso. Amber dressed up as a witch with a pointy black had and a purple shimmery dress that took her half an hour to locate because it had gotten stashed underneath her bed at one point during the past year. She carried my green kitchen broom and was satisfied.

Sugar dose #3: Our ward trunk or treat began at 5pm on Saturday night with a potluck chili dinner complete with a caramel apple bar, Italian soda bar, and popcorn flavoring bar. We arrived a few minutes late, and immediately realized that we had forgotten our bowl of candy to hand out during the trunk or treating portion of the evening. Jeff drove home and got the candy while I took the kids inside the church to see all of the costumes and eat some food. Halloween parties are odd in that they are one of the only times with universally sanctioned people-watching. I sat nibbling popcorn and caramel apples while looking and looking around the gym, admiring all of the various costumes. While the adults talked and voted on best costumes, the kids played various carnival type games in the classrooms with the youth.

Then we went outside to the parking lot for the trunk or treat. Jeff and I handed out increasingly bigger handfuls of Jolly Ranchers until our bowl was finally empty. We were sufficiently socially fried and home by 7:15pm.

Rewind to my peaceful Saturday morning run on the scrubby bike path.

Jay was being a fun oldest cousin and giving the young'ens piggy back rides after playing hide and seek with them. (Cole is showing off the stitches he got after a recent chin injury.) Usually Jay doesn't engage as much with the young cousins, and it made me happy that he is learning how to play with younger kids rather than treating them as peers and getting frustrated by their antics.

Jay and Cole.

In a last-ditch attempt to turn the Walmart nightmare around, I assembled my daughters for a parking lot selfie. I feel like maybe I shouldn't have smiled so brightly...it feels dishonest now that I look at it, haha.

Family costumes: the tree, the teacher, the teenager, the witch, and the strawberry.

Acting out our roles. Rose: serious like a tree. Jay, beaming like a teacher. Jeff: slouching and looking at his phone like a teenager. Amber: cute little sparkly witch riding her broom. Me: trying to look like a sweet strawberry instead of the sweaty strawberry I actually was. I had a down vest on underneath my jacket, and it was not as cold outside as I thought it was. After the pictures I took off the vest.